The Car Accident Experiment: How Accurate We Remember?

The Car Accident Experiment: How Accurate We Remember?

Some people claim that they are very good at remembering events very well which are happened in their past. Do you think that is our memory really adequate to keep every detail of our memories?

Many research has been done on this for many years. One of the most important is the Car Accident Experiment Of Elisabeth F. Loftus and John C. Palmer. For the experiment, 42 students from Washington University participated. These students were divided into 5 groups of 9 people, and every group has been watched 7 car accident movies. When the movies are finished, students were considered eyewitnesses, and many questions were asked to them.

Elisabeth F. Loftus

Specifically, this important question is asked to the first and the second group: ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other? ’ The answer to the question is estimated by the subjects at 34 mph. Then the verbal they used in the question has been changed. It is asked: ‘ About how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other? ’ This time, the speed of the cars is estimated at 40,5 mph.

John C. Palmer

As you can see, whenever the word used changed, the subjects’ thoughts about the event, the way they actually remember that memory, changed. In the question, they asked using the word ‘smashed’, the subjects predicted a faster rate than when they used the word ‘hit’.

After a week, the subjects were called again, and they didn’t watch the film this time. One more question was asked inconspicuously to all groups:  ‘Did you see any broken glass? ’ (Basically, there are no broken glasses.) The researchers observe that the subjects in the first and second groups, which is, those who were asked last week with the words smashed and hit, are higher in terms of the percentage of answering ”Yes” to the question of seeing broken glass. The third group which did not get the speed question were seen as more likely to answer ”No”.

We see from the research that the use of verbs in the questions asked to the subjects led to the reconstruction of the event in their memory. Loftus believes that information provided after an event was replaced by a new one, destroying the original memory record. Furthermore, some studies have proven through DNA tests that many defendants convicted as rapists of which %70 were decided by eyewitness testimony are not actually real criminals.

As seen in the studies, also in daily life, we see that many of our memories are spoiled by the information added later. People know memory as a recording device, yet memory is open to be affected by imagination and newer information. Consequently, memory is not a source as reliable as we think it is. It is not about what we don’t remember, the questionable one is always what we remember.

RESOURCES

• (2013, June). How Reliable Is Your Memory? ted.com https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_how_reliable_is_your_memory
• Elisabeth F. Loftus & John C. Palmer (1974), Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction Between Language and Memory. Journal Of Verbal Learning And Verbal Behavior, 13, 585-589.
• Ciccarelli, S. K., & White, J. N. (2018), Psychology (Fifth Edition). Pearson.